Boston Line Letter embossing plates

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Record 31/143
Copyright Museum of the American Printing House for the Blind
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Collection APH Collection
Date ca. 1885
Description 7 plates, Boston Line Letter vocabulary words, various sizes; (a) 3.75 x 10.25", two lines of words beginning with the and ending with owl; (b) 11.75 x 10.5", fifteen lines of words, first three lines "rod" to "goat,", second six lines, "began" to "than", last six lines "deny" to "must"; (c) 11.75 x 10.5", fifteen lines of words, first three lines "keep" to "play", second six lines, "time" to "cats", last six lines "dogs" to "hook"; (d) 11.75 x 10.5", fifteen lines of words, first six lines "Jane" to "make", second six lines, "that" to "bids", last three lines "keep" to "play"; (e) 11.75 x 10.5", fifteen lines of words, first six lines "yet" to "fall", second six lines, "well" to "try", last three lines "rod" to "goat"; (fg) 7.375 x 10.25", lines of vocabulary word.
Year Range from 1885
Year range to 1900
Made American Printing House for the Blind
Material Steel, tin
Object ID 1992.314.15a-g
Object Name Plate, Embossing
Place of Origin Louisville, KY
Provenance/History 1885 Annual Report: "The unique method of stereotyping, by which is secured a flexible stereotype plate, made of tin foil, amalgamated to a sheet of ordinary roofing tin, is the quickest, and cheapest, and for embossing work the best method in use." The double-cylinder press, made from special designs, prints four pages at every revolution, and will make thirty or more revolutions a minute. The flexible plates adapt themselves to the cylinders without any planing, and the character of the embossing speaks for itself.
Boston Line Letter was developed by Samuel Gridley Howe at the Perkins Institute in 1835. It was the dominant tactile alphabet in America for over 50 years and continued to be carried by APH into the 1920s.
Subjects Manufacturing aids, tools, and supplies.
Stereotype machines.
Tactile Printing.
Title Boston Line Letter embossing plates
Image Courtesy of the Museum of the American Printing House for the Blind. Note: use of some materials may be restricted, please call before publishing in any format.

For more information contact the museum at 502-899-2365    museum@aph.org
Last modified on: April 02, 2010